Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) announced today the reintroduction of the “Every Child Deserves a Family Act.” The act would prohibit any organization that receives federal funding from discriminating against LGBT families in screening or placement of adoptive or foster children.
According to the Family Equality Council, “One in four children in this country is being raised by a single parent. Two million children are being raised in LGBT households. We all recognize there is no single type of family in America anymore. We must not allow anyone to place politics ahead of the best interests of children and exclude millions of potential parents because of who they are or whom they love.” (See: http://www.familyequality.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ECDF)
There is significant research that shows children raised in LGBT families have the same or better outcomes than children raised by heterosexual parents. As a result, large numbers of organizations have policy statements that support LGBT adoption and foster care including, The American Academy of Family Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and many others. For a complete list of these organizations and ones that support the Every Child Deserves a Family Bill see the list on the web site of PFLAG: http://community.pflag.org/page.aspx?pid=1411
The Independent Adoption Center is one of the child welfare agencies listed on this page supporting the bill. IAC has never had any discriminatory policies regarding adoptive parents including, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, religion, race, or ethnic background.
